Against my better judgement, I went along to Miloš Zeman's "friendly
meeting with journalists" last Thursday. Mr Pecina's refusal to attend
on the grounds that large meetings of politicians and journalists ought
not to be by invitation only was, of course, correct, but I thought I'd
go and see what was happening anyway.

I figured that as I have been paying absurdly high taxes in this country
for years and have never received much in return from the state, I might
as well go and get some free grub: after all, I paid for it.

I cannot claim that I managed to eat the equivalent of what I have paid
in taxes, but I have to admit, it was a pretty nice spread. They fed us
journalists quite well; in fact, many journalists seemed to have their
mouths so full of food that they were incapable of asking any intelligent
questions. Then again, maybe the alcohol had affected their journalistic
judgement.

Sitting in front of the fireplace, Zeman looked fatherly, and the journalists
all gathered around him in comfy chairs to listen to him speak. By their
third or fourth glass of champagne, both Zeman and the journalists were
all feeling well satisfied with themselves and nearly forgot their reason
for being there altogether.

The reason for this "friendly meeting," however, became clear once Zeman
announced what topic he had decided (!) to lecture about: the budget. This
was nothing more or less than an attempt to win over the hearts and minds
of journalists and commentators before the looming budget debate. It was
a damage-control exercise before the damage: Zeman was "getting his revenge
in early" to borrow a phrase from the politics of Northern Ireland. Only
time will tell just how successful he was in this effort: keep an eye on
how the budget battle is covered in the press.

In a sense, I feel a bit sorry for today's Czech journalists and commentators.
For many years, most of them have been so resolutely pro-government and
anti-HSSD, that now, they must be experiencing great mental anguish and
stress figuring out what to write when the government is comprised of Social
Democrats (HSSD). Unconciously, each must be asking him or herself, "Should
I continue to mindlessly reprint the government's statements or should
I continue to attack the Social Democrats?" Well, the Social Democrats
invited me to such a fine buffet, so maybe...

The lazy coziness of the whole meeting was a good example of what is
wrong with the Czech media today: too much schmoozing with the bigwigs,
not enough investigating their lies. Meetings should be slightly less "friendly."

I would exaggerate if I claimed that each and every journalist was simply
obediently writing down Zeman's words without question, but overall, the
opportunity to ask tough questions was squandered. There were one or two
questions that tried to hit the mark, but Zeman easily avoided them in
long-winded explanations. The journalists only interrupted Zeman once (as
described in Friday's BL), and follow-up questions were weak if they existed
at all.

One journalist complained that the Premier had not answered his question,
Zeman brushed him aside saying that the time had come to hear other questions,
"So everyone could get a chance." Get a chance to have his questions avoided,
it seemed.

With the "friendly meeting" not really captivating my attention after
an hour or so, I looked around the lavish room and noticed a painting on
the wall. The faded picture showed a shepherd surrounded by sheep. How
appropriate, I thought.